The word out of the northwest today is that Chicago Bulls superstar guard Derrick Rose participated in a five-on-five scrimmage for the first time this season. This news comes on schedule for Rose and the Bulls, as they had planned to get Rose in five-on-five situations after the NBAAll-Star Break and this was Chicago’s first practice after this past weekend.

This is positive news for the Bulls who have managed to do more than just survive without Rose. They are presently 30-22 and in the five-seed in the Eastern Conference. However, there’s no doubt that getting their superstar back would be beneficial.

It also comes a little less than a week after Rose made comments saying that he would have no problem missing the entire season if he wasn’t ready to come back. At the time of those statements, he also said that he was still unable to dunk in stride, which he has used as a measuring stick for his return.

But if Rose is able to come back soon, it would be a huge relief to the Bulls. They already have Luol Deng playing an absurd 39.6 minutes per game and are dealing with nagging injuries to guys like Joakim Noah and Kirk Hinrich. Those two things alone mean they would benefit from having another player available, much less one of Rose’s caliber.

For Chicago’s sake and the sake of the NBA fans that enjoy watching Rose play basketball, hopefully he will be coming back sooner rather than later. But he shouldn’t come back just for those reasons, he should wait until he’s completely ready or it could do more harm than good.